Unions and sports agents...

[WillMagic]

are more related than you might think.

In a truly free market, they both serve as instruments of negotiation. Your average baseball player, like your average steelworker, has neither the time, inclination, or expertise to effectively negotiate a labor contract. Baseball players hire agents to represent them as unique commodities because, by and large, they are unique commodities - they represent a unique set of skills, and that uniqueness would be lost in any attempt to bundle their services in package with another player. Whereas the steelworker's services are decidedly non-unique - he is better off going in with a group to hire a negotiator.

Which means that the Austrian critique of unions - that they raise the wage of workers beyond their real market value - only holds if the union is given some special privilege by the government. Otherwise the union functions no differently than the sports agent.

It's also interesting to note that there are those who support giving expanded privileges to unions but would support restricting the powers of sports agents. Where unions might have a largely positive reputation, sports agents are almost universilly villified. And yet their function is the same. It's just envy.

[pvn]

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Which means that the Austrian critique of unions - that they raise the wage of workers beyond their real market value - only holds if the union is given some special privilege by the government. Otherwise the union functions no differently than the sports agent.

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Yes and no. It's possible for unions to raise the wage beyond the "real market value" even without special privileges. However, I (personally) wouldn't find such an outcome *morally objectionable*. And yes, in that case, the function is effectively the same as an agent.

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It's also interesting to note that there are those who support giving expanded privileges to unions but would support restricting the powers of sports agents. Where unions might have a largely positive reputation, sports agents are almost universilly villified. And yet their function is the same. It's just envy.

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That, combined with ignorance. Two great tastes that taste great together!

[Kaj]

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It's possible for unions to raise the wage beyond the "real market value" even without special privileges.

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Actually, without privileges, unions have no mechanism to raise anything beyond "market value", they merely offer package deals rather than individual deals. So, the market value of the package (union workforce) must be exactly what the market pays them, in the absence of special privs.

[pvn]

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It's possible for unions to raise the wage beyond the "real market value" even without special privileges.

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Actually, without privileges, unions have no mechanism to raise anything beyond "market value", they merely offer package deals rather than individual deals. So, the market value of the package (union workforce) must be exactly what the market pays them, in the absence of special privs.

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Well, yes and no, depending on how "market value" is defined. It's such a vague term that it doesn't really make any difference - the only thing that matters is that there won't be anything morally objectionable about the end result.

[mosdef]

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Actually, without privileges, unions have no mechanism to raise anything beyond "market value"

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Except violent force. If you physically prevent scabs from taking the job that you vacated while you hold out for more pay, that's not exactly the freeist of markets.

[Kaj]

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Actually, without privileges, unions have no mechanism to raise anything beyond "market value"

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Except violent force. If you physically prevent scabs from taking the job that you vacated while you hold out for more pay, that's not exactly the freeist of markets.

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True, but criminal activity is a different matter...